Together- A Harry Potter Love Story (1- new)

2

July 1991

"They're sending you to boarding school?!"

Guilt flickered across my features as Lawrence stared at me in utter shock, his outburst causing a leering rabbit to scurry away into the long grass; wrenching a weed from the ground, I forced myself to focus on twirling it between my fingers as I continued with my rehearsed explanation.

"Mum and Dad think it's best..." I hummed, nose wrinkling at the high-pitched falsity in my voice. "A fresh start, you know?"

"No, I do not know!" came his expected objection, arms thrown into the air in a disbelieving gesture. "Why didn't they tell you at the start of summer? Tell us at the start of summer? Tell us before we applied to the same secondary school?!"

"The letter only just came yesterday!"

"Oh, did it just fly in out of nowhere?" Lawrence argued, sarcasm dripping from his tone as he crossed his arms stubbornly. I released a breath of a laugh before I could stop myself, raising my hands in surrender at the desperate glare my best friend immediately shot me.

"Well, that is pretty much what happened, yes..." I stated, etching a timid grin onto my features. Lawrence's hands shot to his temples, looking exasperated as he thought aloud.

"When's the next time I'll see you?" he questioned next, gaze returning to me. "How long will you be gone for?"

"Forever!" I hissed playfully, arching an eyebrow as Lawrence drew in an audible gasp of horror. "Oh, come on, Law, I'm only joking!"

"This isn't a joking matter!" he exclaimed, scrambling onto his knees. "I feel like my insides are quite literally eating me up..."

Giggling, I dropped comfortably onto my back so that my eyes were forced to squint in response to the August sun, whilst Lawrence watched me with his lips slightly parted; I could tell that his mind was racing.

"What about your magic?" he asked after a short moment, causing my stomach to flip with a twisted mixture of dangerous excitement.

"What about it?" I mumbled, with an uncharacteristic lack of animation. I could feel Lawrence's stare practically burning into my skin.

"What will you do when you go away? Keep it a secret from everyone all over again?" he pressed. His words were spoken softly, but the accusation behind them made my fingers curl into my palms. "At least you have me here..." he whispered, so gently my ribs seemed to clench.

I knew I was being selfish. I knew if it were the other way round I would be acting out one hundred times worse than Lawrence had been that very second, but Mum and Dad had made it clear that I was to keep my entrance into the wizarding world a complete secret, for otherwise I would be breaking something named The International Statue of Wizarding Secrecy.

I knew I was being selfish. Nothing had ever stopped me from breaking any rules before, I could have easily broken this apparent law and shared the secret with my best friend. I knew he would do the same if it were the other way round.

But it wasn't the other way round. Lawrence had never experienced the constant hatred and bullying I had through school for something that was completely out of my control, resulting in forced silences for hours upon hours, entrapped by a compressing bubble of fear that I might expose my true self. Now, after a life of secrets and lies, I would finally be in a safe place surrounded by people like me.